‘Absolutely appalling’… Frank Leboeuf left furious after seeing what Noni Madueke did for Chelsea last night

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Frank Leboeuf vented his frustration towards one Chelsea player after last night’s defeat versus Middlesbrough.

Unfortunately, Blues winger Noni Madueke was in the firing line.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side suffered a worrying 1-0 defeat on Tuesday evening away to Championship club Middlesbrough.

It’s advantage Boro in the Carabao Cup semi-final clash, securing a one-goal advantage in yesterday’s first leg. The teams meet again on 23 January at Stamford Bridge for the second leg.

Chelsea should expect to once again run into a Boro side that are set up defensively very well by Michael Carrick.

ESPN pundit Frank Leboeuf couldn’t contain his anger towards what he saw from Chelsea’s Madueke in the cup loss.

He highlighted a cross from the 21-year-old Blues attacker that massively irritated him.

“Madueke at one point, he made the cross where we could see there was no Chelsea player in the box. But he made it,” Leboeuf told ESPN.

“The guy is a professional player, it means he crosses by instinct, he doesn’t know what he does, he does not inform himself on what he has to do. That is absolutely appalling.”

Noni Madueke against Middlesbrough

It wasn’t a vintage display in the cup from Madueke, who showed endeavour against Boro without much actual end product.

The young forward, along with his teammates, couldn’t provide the clinical touch in the final third.

Eventually, he was substituted off just after the hour mark.

Chelsea did have opportunities to score in the semi-final first leg, but most openings came from mistakes by the opposition. Overall, the Premier League team did find it very difficult to break down a side from the division below.

Madueke has looked one of Chelsea’s most threatening attackers in the last month, so it wasn’t a great sign that he was running out of ideas against Boro.

We think Raheem Sterling, who started on the opposite wing for the Blues, equally struggled in the cup defeat. Speaking via BBC Radio 5 Live Sport (8:44pm, 9 January), Pat Nevin urged Sterling to be more direct against Boro.